I was about to pissfart about with the blog template there but have decided against it for the moment. You'll probably be relieved to hear that.
6:34 PM | link
Search request of the day. Well, if you think a fellow called McGee is responsible, he probably is.
5:52 PM | link
Via Ted Barlow: Carcino.Gen.NZ. All those humorous images people keep sending you by email, gathered together in one convenient place. Note: well bad taste ahead.
5:45 PM | link
The Museum of Museums. Looks like a remarkable reference tool.
5:19 PM | link
US pilots charged with manslaughter over bombing mistake.
The Air Force said today that it was bringing criminal charges against two American F-16 pilots who mistakenly bombed Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan in April, killing four and wounding eight.
Each pilot was charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, eight counts of assault and one count of dereliction of duty.
Plane diverted with military escort when woman needed to be sick. "Paranoia, paranoia, la la la la la..."
4:48 PM | link
British doctors to prescribe golf. Aint no one prescribing it to me, thank you very much,
4:46 PM | link
Alleged coordinator of Sept. 11 attacks caught. The world is still waiting for the carcass of bin Laden to be brought forth.
4:45 PM | link
No radioactive watermelons for Moscow this year.
If anyone wonders why Moscow needs a corps of atomic food inspectors, the answer is simple: the city lies a bare 415 miles from Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear-power station, which belched a Hiroshima bomb's worth of isotopes into the air when one of its reactors blew apart in April 1986.
If anyone wonders why this task falls to the veterinary service, that answer is simple, too: besides lingonberries and mushrooms, the inspectors are on constant lookout for hot sirloin and pork chops.
Robert Reynolds wonders, whither gayness?
The troubles that have beset Mardi Gras show Matt is not alone in his detachment from gay life. While the president of the AIDS Council of NSW might declare that Mardi Gras is "absolutely central to gay and lesbian life in this city, this state and this country", the indifference of men and women like Matt suggests otherwise.
"Indifference" could be putting it too mildly for some. "It's been circling the plughole for ages," Paul, a gay, 34-year-old inner-city cook tells me. "Let it go down." Asked if he'll miss Mardi Gras, he laughs incredulously. "Miss a bunch of old people, running around like school prefects, telling me how to be gay? It's a short French word that means happy. They should look it up."
Interview with Quentin Tarantino. Seems he's still at work on the new film. No word of a release date, though hopefully it won't be long, cos it's already nearly five years since Jackie Brown passed through theatres...
4:01 PM | link
Girls' murder inquiry officer arrested over child porn.
The police detective who read a poem at the cathedral memorial service for the murdered 10-year-olds Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells has been arrested on allegations of distributing child pornography.
Detective Constable Brian Stevens, of the Cambridgeshire police, who worked as a family liaison officer supporting Jessica's parents, was one of two Cambridgeshire constables on the Soham murder inquiry who were taken into custody on Thursday after dawn raids on their homes.
Apparently the arrest has nothing to do with the two girls, but even so that must make them feel weird. So much for Soham as a nice quiet town, then...
3:56 PM | link
Tex is in particularly magnificent form here. When he heads his post with "A conservative I'd love to bash into a pulp", you know there's fun ahead. Sample:
America did not change for more than a few moments on Sept. 11, but our society must undergo serious and lasting change if we hope to live in freedom and prosperity.
You do live in freedom and prosperity, you fuckwit. You're in the world's richest & most powerful nation fer chrissake. If that country produces many more wimps like you, they really will be in deep shit. Christ, what a pants-pissing weasel this dork is. Good thing nerds like you weren't running the country back in the Cold War - the Russians would have been using your undescended balls as cocktail olives.
RIP The Fountain. Since Brad Pitt took his beard to the set of Troy instead of honouring his commitment to this film, the production's had to be cancelled, and there's up to about 400 people out of work up on the Gold Coast as a result. That's pretty fucked, especially coming after a similar number of people lost work following the cancellation of Farscape. Thanks for nothing, Mr Shitt.
3:31 PM | link
And may I just say hello to whoever's been visiting Hot Buttered Death from Germany via the sbs.de domain. I've noticed that one cropping up a fair bit in my referrers lately; nice to know I have regular readers apart from the weirdos looking for porn and things like wtc disaster fetish photo (no I didn't make that one up; someone in Japan actually did find my site using that)...
9:17 PM | link
Smiley emoticon celebrates 20th anniversary. And the first BBS post to include it (by suggesting it as a way of marking jokes) has just been rediscovered too.
8:47 PM | link
It's a bit late for Sept. 11 commemoration stuff, but I couldn't not mention a sentence Jim Henley uses here. "There will be people trying to use this day to harness your emotions to their ambitions." That just struck me as an extraordinary phrase for some reason, perhaps because he's dead right. If there's one thing you sadly can't say about Sept. 11, it's that it hasn't been thoroughly exploited by various people for various reasons or that it won't continue to be exploited.
8:40 PM | link
Zimbabwean school afflicted by inexplicable mass hysteria.
"It is now disturbing," said a worker at the school. "Everyday there are new cases. We don’t know what to do about this condition. We fear most students might miss their exams."
Personally I'd have thought the wellbeing of the kids was somewhat more important than their exams, but government departments have a tendency not to think like ordinary people...
8:22 PM | link
Nick Nolte nicked. Nick got picked up for drunk driving, the silly bastard. Just wait until you see the picture of him, though. His hair and clothes look to be even more drunk and disorderly than he was apparently behaving.
8:14 PM | link
Italians name toilet block after Ecuadorian soccer ref. Damn, they really took their World Cup loss hard, didn't they.
8:08 PM | link
Via Rotten News: Behold the wonder of the test tube tadger! Having read the article, click here and see the photo they chose to accompany the article. Magnificent.
7:53 PM | link
Man robs 7-11 after Sept. 11-inspired drinking binge.
"There was part of me that's freakin' out, as the world is comin' to an end," he told police.
"'Cos of what happened in America a couple of weeks ago . . . I have been pretty freaked out.
"That's one of the reasons that I have gone on that bender. You know, like, just, this is the end of the world, you know."
Funny how you were, you know, like, just the only person to react to the apocalypse in this way...
7:50 PM | link
Plane sent back to airport on account of passenger's comb. Looks like we just discovered something else you can't take on planes any more.
7:42 PM | link
Preserving the unpreserveable?
Artists today are experimenting with materials that were never intended to be used in art making—from chocolate to excrement, foam rubber and fluorescent tubes, bodily fluids and banana peels—materials that are difficult or impossible to preserve. They create artworks that are destined to be consumed or to be constantly remade. Such works have compelled curators and conservators to come up with new preservation strategies.
Eh. If the stuff is designed to wear out and be ephemeral, I don't see an awful lot of point trying to stop it being just that. Is it even possible or desirable to preserve happenings and installations? Especially fucking idiotic ones like this?
7:32 PM | link
Well-meaning but ultimately stupid Sept. 11 tribute goes horribly wrong.
Thousands of Sydney motorists were left stranded with flat car batteries after turning on their headlights in a September 11 tribute and forgetting to turn them off again. [...]
The National Roads and Motorists' Association, which provides mechanical help to drivers, said flat battery reports were running at about 530 an hour during the afternoon - 150 an hour more than usual.
YOW. Mum said they got that faxed to them at the post office. Basically Bob Carr, or his office, were suggesting people around the country turn on their lights at 8.45am on Sept. 11 as a mark of respect. Though well-intentioned, I knew the idea was spurious because the attacks did not happen at 8.45am here. Word to Bob: fourteen-hour international time difference. It was 10.45 at night. I was there and remember it clearly. Apart from which, Mum said anyone working for Australia Post who followed that suggestion would have to be running very late for work indeed. Still, it seems many people did, and look where it got them...
7:16 PM | link
Man discovers new "moon" around Earth.
If it is determined that J002E2 is natural it will become Earth's third natural satellite.
Paul Chodas of Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California says it must have just arrived or it would have been easily detected long ago. Calculations suggest it may have been captured earlier this year. [...]
Earth's second satellite, which is called Cruithne, was discovered in 1986. It takes a convoluted horseshoe path around our planet as it is tossed about by the Earth's and the Moon's gravity.
Now just a minute there... we have two natural satellites? And the other one's been there for sixteen years? Why the FUCK was I not informed? I am absolutely flabbergasted. I've just been doing a quick Google search on this, and found this article. I am genuinely astonished. I thought I was reasonably up on astronomical matters, but this has somehow entirely escaped me before now. That article reckons it's basically just a near-Earth asteroid that got caught and could eventually slip out of Earth's gravity, but even so...
6:57 PM | link
A French man on a Swim for Liberty from Virginia to New York was held by police who became suspicious of his snorkel.
Marathon swimmer Benoit Lecomte was marking the first anniversary of the terror attacks by swimming 500 miles from the Potomac River to the Statue of Liberty. [...]
"We were on a heightened state of alert. When our patrol saw him swimming, we called the Harbor Police and they picked him up," said Major Stephanie Bindeman, a spokeswoman at Bolling Air Force Base.
Heightened state of paranoia is more like it. Apart from which, not even I can seriously imagine terrorists bringing dirty nukes or whatever into town by swimming...
6:48 PM | link
Artist makes bonsai tree crashes. Just the thing to buy for the Marc Bolan fan in your family...
6:46 PM | link
John Safran investigates the World's Biggest Hug thing. The findings are most interesting, and it would seem there might be reasons to be dubious towards it other than just ickiness.
6:35 PM | link
Scientists fail to prove weeping Virgin Mary statue is a fake. Um... didn't they actually discover a cavity inside the head with oil in it? Or is that being ignored so it can be called a miracle?
6:32 PM | link
Warren Zevon on the way out. Apparently terminal lung cancer has recently been diagnosed. Zevon's not a performer I know much about apart from "Werewolves of London", but the news has been doing the rounds of Blogovia today so thought I'd mention it as well.
6:06 PM | link
The Age insists Goth is back. Though as someone in the article says, when did it exactly go away?
5:57 PM | link
RIP Died Pretty. The end has come at last for Ron Peno & co. I've been waiting for this to happen ever since they put out their Best Of album three years ago, since those so often signal some sort of contract fulfilment to allow a band to split up. I remember reviews of shows from that time indicating they might be their last. Still, they did put out another album a year or so ago, though it never went anywhere for them. A damnable pity, since they had many fine tunes to their credit.
5:54 PM | link
Alex Downer hawks it up again.
Australia was part of a broad consensus that time was running out for Iraq, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said today.
Speaking after US President George W Bush made his case against Iraq to the United Nations, Mr Downer said diplomacy was almost at an end.
Possibly it's just me, but I don't remember diplomacy even starting in the first place.
5:49 PM | link
Some interesting things turned up in the referrers today, including my first hit that I can ever remember getting from Yemen. For some reason I wasn't entirely surprised that whoever it was came looking for "NEW HOT SEX ARAB ADULT AND HOT SEX SCHOOL GIRLS". In those capitals. Got another couple of military ones, too, one bloke in the US Army seeking "Hot Australian Girls" (so am I, mate; if you find any, please pass them on) and another from an undetermined military location in search of that Gothopoly game. I've had a surprising number of searches for that, so I should perhaps mention the creators of the site reportedly had to whack it cos they were getting too much traffic after it got Metafiltered. That's the first search I've had from a military visitor, though, which disquiets me for some reason. I mean, military goths? I can't envisage it.
Oh, and I had someone on a gov.au domain seeking "Australia political humour 'Bob Carr'". Don't know what department they hailed from, but I daresay they're Liberal...
5:40 PM | link
All right, I couldn't resist posting this. Bravo, Mr Matt!
6:08 PM | link
Ne pas de blogging aujourd'hui. I got too much classwork due in tomorrow that I need to be getting on with instead.
5:46 PM | link
God, that's another bloody awful-sounding song being sung at the Pentagon. Maybe it was just as well no one tried writing a new speech for the occasion if the quality of the song-writing is that mediocre...
11:54 PM | link
And what was that fucking song at the Pentagon service, that "They gave their lives" thing? That was as much as I wanted to make out. Vomitous.
11:41 PM | link
What the fuck is wrong with Ch.10? The coverage of the memorial at Ground Zero is going to air now, right? They had the minute's silence, right, and then the reading of the Gettysburg address... so what do they do when someone comes to the mic to introduce it? They go to an advert in mid-sentence. And then when they come back, they have bloody Sandra Sully talking to their bloody reporter at Ground Zero, way above where the memorial service is happening. No audio or visuals from the service itself. Then after that, cut to something else altogether, and more adverts. Good Christ. I mean, the ABC aren't showing it either, but at least Lateline is acknowledging that it's going on... the other commercial networks are running the live coverage from CBS, don't know why Ten couldn't do that too...
11:04 PM | link
Damn it, just go here here and download this:
Interpol - "NYC" (5.1 Mb)
I don't know much about Interpol, having only first heard of them a couple of weeks ago when I got the September issue of Mojo and read the short piece about them in that issue. I've read a few good notices of their album since then, including the BlogCritics review which hailed it as album of the year so far. Thus far I've only heard the mp3s at the Matador Records website for the band, but I'd be willing to say the above song is one of the most beautiful I've heard this year. This is an album I now know I'm going to have to investigate in full.
9:54 PM | link
I got this in the email today.
Subject: In Memorium
While many people are struggling with how best to observe the anniversary of the September 11th attacks one way is becoming a very interesting option. Turn off the news. While the media performed a fantastic service on that fateful day and the months since in helping to disseminate important information... it's time to turn them off. Every major media outlet is planning extensive coverage of the day with heartfelt and touching stories, all beautifully written and edited. And we should appreciate the hard work that they do. But there will be no news there. There will simply be a rehashing of sentiments that we've all felt, a replaying of video footage that we've all seen, a retelling of stories that we've all heard. There is no value in letting the media tell us, once again, how we should respond emotionally to the facts of that day. There is an alternative.
Turn off the news on September 11th, 2002. Turn off the TV. Turn off the radio. Turn off your computer.
Make the day about something else.
Spend the day with your family and friends. Take the kids to a park and play in the warm September sun. If it's raining next Wednesday, pull out the cards or a board game. Enjoy each other's company. Take your spouse, girlfriend, boyfriend, or significant other out to dinner or lunch. Talk. Laugh. Tell those in your lives that they matter to you. If there is one thing we all have learned from those events a year ago, it's that life is precious and fleeting and that you never know when you'll get a chance to tell the ones you love how you feel. This September 11th would be a good time to do just that... in deeds as well as words. Imagine it as a new holiday... a holiday when we tell the people in our lives how much we value them. How ironic would that be? An act of hatred such as the world has never seen being the cause for a tradition of love.
It would be great if the biggest story on September 12th... when everybody turns their TVs and radios and computers back on... was the massive decline in audience across the country. Imagine how humbling that would be to a news industry that has come to take itself pretty seriously. Imagine how good it will be for all of us who have become used to being bombarded with 9/11 stories for 365 days in a row... with no end in sight.
This isn't possible for me. Even if I didn't blog, I'd still be paying attention to the news on the Internet. I was in the ThreeWay Action chat room at 10.45pm on Sept. 11 last year (our time) when the attacks started on the WTC; I didn't have the TV on or anything, so that was how I discovered it was happening. I might've not discovered the thing was even happening until the next morning. As it was, being online while it was all happening changed my perception of the entire event. I'm fairly sure that had I not discovered it until the morning of the 12th, I would've been astonished, even aghast, but not half as much as I was watching the thing live. Some of the people in the 3WA chat were in New York, so they were right in the thick of it.
I didn't get much sleep that night, about three hours of it. Kept trying to convince myself it was some astonishingly bad dream or hallucination. I failed. I went out for a walk around the block at midday. Having seen history in the making the night before, the normality of the day here was astonishing; again, it wouldn't have struck me so much had I only discovered what had happened when I got up. Whatever little faith I had in humanity after that came crashing down with the twin towers. By the beginning of the 13th I'd passed the point where I could stomach any more news. On the night of the 14th I went out for dinner with friends. The day after that, we were calling someone in to deal with this giant clump of bees that had got attached to the tree in our front yard. The next week, it was back to doing the show on 2SER and dealing with strife at TAFE (that class last year was riddled with conflicts between one of the students and pretty much everyone else) and being rudely awakened by construction work two doors down and finishing off an essay I'd started about a month earlier.
In other words, back to fairly normal within a week. I think it was the big televised memorial thing a couple of days after the catastrophe that finally broke me. It struck me as being just overdone. It was a big production number. Everything since then has been a kind of production number too. Steve Liebmann, in New York at the moment, basically admitted on the Today show on Ch.9 this morning that the media hype in the lead-up to the anniversary has been too much. Tracey whatsername and Richard Wilkins in the studio back in Sydney seemed slightly stunned for a moment, as if they were struggling to find the right platitude with which to answer that unexpected outburst of honesty.
I don't presume for a second that my responses to the terrorist attacks were the right or wrong ones. I have no intention of prescribing to people how they should or should not commemorate the events of Sept. 11 2001. Everyone approached the attacks from a different perspective, everyone will remember them accordingly. I only offer the above italicised section of this post in the same spirit in which it was sent me, i.e. as a suggestion. I read it, liked the idea of it, and pass it on accordingly. Switching off isn't entirely an option for me. It's up to you whether you choose to or not.
I attempted to watch the documentary by those French blokes on Ch.7. Got to the point where they actually got the first plane on camera hitting the WTC, heard the noise of the thing passing overhead while the filmmakers and the firefighters were down on the ground doing something else, saw the collision, switched off the TV. Couldn't do it any more. It's early morning in the eastern parts of the US. I know I have some readers in the US, so I'll wish them the best possible day. Have a safe one, and I hope you do better than me.
9:04 PM | link
Odd juxtaposition: at the end of the ABC news there was a promo for the new version of The Forsyte Saga which featured some old geezer muttering the words "The family's breaking apart". Right at that point I flipped over to Ch.10 for The Simpsons, and tuned in right at the end of the opening sequence... which in this episode featured statues of the Simpsons sitting on the couch and Homer crumbling to bits.
7:33 PM | link
Ted Rall on the cheesification of Sept. 11.
Don't get the rest of us wrong. We love America too. But we are understandably tense as we approach what is likely to be the greatest orgy of cheesy sentimentality, naked political opportunism and rank corporate necrophilia in this country's history.
That's even better than tragedy porn. I like it.
7:30 PM | link
The U.N. General Assembly is expected formally to admit Switzerland as its 190th member at a ceremony Tuesday.[...]
"Finally Switzerland will be at home as a member of the U.N. family," declared Bertrand Louis, ambassador to U.N. offices in Geneva at a reception in the Swiss city.
"When the Swiss delegation steps down from its observer seat to join the main U.N. body, it will be a big step," he added. "It will be a step out of the shadows."
Apparently, though, they still want to retain some degree of their historic neutrality. Makes me wonder why they bothered signing on with the UN at all...
7:23 PM | link
Via Jason Rylander: Karen Armstrong on dealing with fundamentalism.
6:42 PM | link
Genetically modified hair. Man, the hair dye manufacturers are going to be pissed about this. Goths can go permanently black! Little old ladies can have an everlasting blue rinse!
6:26 PM | link
Man planning expedition from the Arctic to the Antarctic through the hollow earth.
Think that Thompson has holes in his head? Well, he says science backs up his theories and claims monks from all over the world travel through the holes in order to visit a Tibetan village called "Sham-bala."
Yeah, scientists through history have always regarded the idea of the Earth being hollow as likely. Arseclown.
6:24 PM | link
Via Dave Tepper: because one day you may well need to know just how to translate something in Italian to Tongan, or vice versa.
6:03 PM | link
Tony Blair watches Chitty Chitty Bang Bang daily. He claims it's the most recent child, Leo, who makes him do it, but that seems a likely story. No word on how often he watches that George Michael video.
5:40 PM | link
Jason Soon's begging for the return of Bill Clinton. Now that's what I call disillusionment with the current regime. Coming from someone like Jason, that's quite a thing to say...
5:13 PM | link
My greetings to whoever visited the blog earlier this morning on a connection from this site. That "pictures of Saudi beheading" search string you used to get here was a real charmer that reassured me about the beauty of Christian charity and love no end.
10:36 AM | link
School gets all Big Brother on its students. Apparently the school is just littered with security cameras following the students everywhere, along with other stuff. A few parents have complained, though what beefed them was the fact that they weren't told; otherwise, they seem to think the system is fine.
8:15 PM | link
New Hitler film stirring shit.
Max, a movie written and directed by Menno Meyjes, is scheduled for release on Dec. 27 by Lions Gate Films. The film, which takes place in post-World War I Munich, stars John Cusack as Max Rothman, a German Jewish art dealer who takes a young artist named Adolf Hitler (played by Noah Taylor) under his wing.
The idea of this film, according to sources, is to show how Hitler was transformed from a troubled, unrealized artist into the most evil criminal mind of all time.
But more importantly, how Hitler became the greatest anti-Semite of all time and the killer of six million Jews. Because Max only concerns itself with Hitler's vicious hatred of Jews and with none of the other atrocities that came to bear his stamp.
Seems people have issues with the idea that Hitler can and perhaps even should be portrayed in a balanced fashion. In this Salon piece about the film, Cusack wryly notes that none of the people condemning the film have actually seen it (nothing new there, of course), and article author David Talbot further observes:
While scores of biographies and history books have presented fully dimensional portraits of Hitler, no major movie until now has offered anything more than a cartoon picture of the 20th century's apogee of evil: we have seen him on the screen only as a ranting and wild-eyed hysteric.
Given that the film doesn't depict Hitler as not being evil, I don't see how the accusation of glorifying said ranting hysteric holds water. Either way, this is a film I can't wait for.
8:11 PM | link
Bush: what happens in Iraq once we bounce Saddam isn't our responsibility.
During a call to the current head of the European Union, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Bush made it clear he felt "not his responsibility to define" who or what would replace the Iraqi president, according to one diplomat.
Bush "expressed the view that any alternative is preferable" to Saddam, added the diplomat.
A second official from another European country agreed that Bush had "said it was up to the international community to help set up what follows" once the government in Baghdad had been toppled.
In other words, he appears ready and willing to let the US storm into Iraq without anyone else's help but not to clean up the mess they'll make afterwards? This gets worse by the day.
8:02 PM | link
"There are no bigger fans of Farscape than we here at SCI FI Channel," the network said in a statement. "It was one of SCI FI's first original series and quickly became a critical and fan favorite. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts to reach a broader audience, Farscape has been unable to grow beyond its core fan base. That, coupled with the extreme and growing cost of production, has led to the difficult decision to end the series at the conclusion of season four."
That means the series is going to end on a cliffhanger or something, too. I didn't like the show, the few episodes I saw did not entice me to watch it further, and personally I think the distressing thing about the show's end is the effect it could have on the local industry. Farscape was produced in Sydney (the studio where it was made is located at Homebush) and I read in the paper the other day up to 500 jobs could be lost as a result of the show being axed.
7:54 PM | link
Via Jason Rylander: Dusting off the Gettysburg Address for Sept. 11 commemoration purposes. Article author William Safire finds appropriateness in it, but Jason reckons it's just a sign that modern oratory must be pretty weak if no one could compose something equally fitting, and more importantly new, for the event.
7:39 PM | link
Product placement in songs now? Shit, world's getting so we'll soon have to retreat into caves if we want to avoid advertising altogether. Whereupon some smartarse will no doubt paint the cave walls with some golden arches.
7:33 PM | link
Life on the land a billion years ago? I don't know what to make of it, it looks a bit speculative to me...
7:25 PM | link
Cloning humans probably not a good idea.
The study, performed by researchers at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Boston, found that cloning to create new animals will almost always create an abnormal creature.
Apart from which, there's enough of the bastards occupying the Earth as it is. And more than likely the wrong sort of person would wind up getting multiplied.
7:23 PM | link
McDonalds getting rid of Ronald McDonald?
The global firm claims Ronald is the world’s most recognised figure after Father Christmas.
But an advertising executive consulted by McDonald’s over a possible image makeover said: “I think they are having serious concerns about him now.
“He is over 30—he is a clown from another era. He is an icon, but dated. The kids have moved on.”
What are they going to do instead to keep up with the kids, McPokemon? Or is that oh-so-twelve-months-ago too? Odd how public faces of corporations take hold. I was surprised to discover Ronald only came into being in 1963, by which time I think McFood had been operating for eight years. For some reason I would've assumed Ronald was already part of the deal when the company lifted off.
7:16 PM | link
Study finds 11.3 billion pop-up ads were served on the Internet between January and July. Feels like I got most of them, too. The study did not show how many people were worked up into a frenzy of hate for the fucking things.
7:08 PM | link
Zulu king preaches abstinence to 2000 naked girls, at least for a while.
"Today we are facing a war against AIDS," the king said, after a royal praise-caller had introduced him with a shouted litany of his and his ancestors' great deeds.
"I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate my appeal to young people, male and female, to abstain from sex until they get married or until they decide to raise their families," he said. The ceremony continues on Sunday.
Until they get married or decide to have kids? Surely Zwelithini's not promoting childbirth out of wedlock?
7:05 PM | link
Sept. 11 survivor wants money for interviews.
"Paying for stories, especially stories that have such historic importance, is setting a bad precedent,'' said Kenny Irby, a journalism ethics expert at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. "The American media is rooted in its accuracy and authority. Paying would compromise that.''
So American media outlets have never engaged in chequebook journalism, then, have they Ken?
6:49 PM | link
US Mint wants to design new coins. Oddly enough, they want to leave the quarter as is for some reason.
Potential themes for redesigned coins are things American, among them: freedoms, innovation, vistas, arts and culture, classic coins, the West, presidents, heroes and heroines, women, endangered species, animals and Nobel Prize winners.
Because as we all know, the only place on Earth where you can find art, heroes, women, endangered species, animals and Nobel Prize winners is the US.
6:39 PM | link
Epileptic man forced to pay compensation for having a fit.
In a case described by an epilepsy charity as "like something you would see on the Ally McBeal show", Edwin Young has been told to pay £3,500 to Yvonne Rennie for the mild post-traumatic stress that she suffered.
Mrs Rennie sued after Mr Young suffered an epileptic fit while driving four years ago and crashed into her car at traffic lights in Perth.
In a written judgment, Sheriff Michael Fletcher, at Perth sheriff court, accepted that she was upset by the look on Mr Young's face.
I've encountered many insane things on the Net since taking up blogging, but this is certainly one of the nuttier ones.
6:23 PM | link
Vladimir Putin declares centuries-old Islamic tradition of head scarves for a women a fad. Kind of like Soviet Communism, then, Vlad?
6:19 PM | link
Indian man can recite Bollywood songs backwards. People can tell the difference?
6:10 PM | link
Via Tim Blair: The World's Biggest Hug For Peace. For those of you who, unlike me, are not yet entirely nauseated by the incessant feel-goodness of the world today. I'm not sure, though, if declaring Sept. 11 "World Peace Day" is more or less trite than Dubya declaring it Patriot Day...
6:09 PM | link
Does anyone give a shit any more about whether or not Osama bin Laden's dead? Even if someone from Al Qaeda allegedly claims he is?
5:59 PM | link
Via Robert Corr: Angela Shanahan moans about having to write about Sept. 11. Rob ascribes the article erroneously to Miranda Devine, though otherwise his point (if she doesn't want to write about it, she should write about something else) is a good one.
5:49 PM | link
Hollywood tentatively embraces the Internet.
Warner Home Video and Internet movie service CinemaNow sealed a deal on Friday that will allow movies such as last year's mega-hit Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to be downloaded from the internet and watched whenever the viewer wants to do so.
Top blockbusters will be able to be downloaded for $US3.99 ($A7.33) dollars per view, while other titles will cost $US2.99 ($A5.49) dollars as Hollywood tentatively embraces the internet despite fears of piracy and copyright violations. [...]
The films can be viewed an unlimited number of times after being downloaded for the standard fee, but the movie will become unplayable after 24 hours, limiting the potential of piracy.
Give 'em a few days, they'll work out a way around it. No word on who's going to provide the broadband connections that will be necessarily to do all this downloading or how much that'll cost.
5:02 PM | link
US telemarketers face a quiet day on Wednesday.
Recognizing that many Americans won't be in the mood for getting sales calls, many of the nation's telemarketers plan to take the day off Wednesday.
Sept. 11 is a day for people to be with their families, said Perry Young, director of a telemarketing center in Omaha run by Call Solutions Inc., of Waukesha, Wis.
"If I received a call at home on that day from somebody trying to sell me something, I would be personally offended," Young said.
Funnily enough, if I receive a call at home on ANY day from somebody trying to sell me something, I am personally offended.
4:55 PM | link
I just posted a new (old) review to Blogcritics... linking it here because for some reason the fucking front page of the site is refusing to update with it. Unfailing Movable Type my arse!
4:48 PM | link
As for the people looking for photos of dead people from the WTC attacks, begone. You are vomitous maggoty things, and if there were any laws I could invoke against you I'd squeal on the lot of you.
1:48 PM | link
Along with frequent requests for porn, many of them from Saudi Arabia for some reason, I get a number of hits from people using government and military domains. In recent days I got hits from the Defence Information Systems Agency, the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Environmental Protection Agency. All of these, incidentally, came from Tex's website, proving he has readers at least in high places. I'm a little more bothered by a couple of locally-based government searchs I got today... unfortunately, being from Australian and NZ ones, I can't check exactly what department they were. At any rate, the NZ visitor came in search of "ann coulter any muslim can snap at any time and start shooting", while the Australian one sought "things to do in melbourne goth september 2002". I'm not sure which of the two bothers me more, though the idea of someone at a government level looking for goth-related fun perhaps just wins out...
1:45 PM | link
The psychoanalytic dating service.
Undeterred by the qualms of many experts, a New York psychoanalyst is trying to create a dating service in which men and women would be matched up by people who know them intimately—their therapists.
The service, which is signing up clients but not yet pairing them, is open only to people undergoing psychotherapy. In contrast to standard, self-composed dating pitches—"great sense of humor, loves the outdoors"—clients of TheraDate will be assessed on such factors as obsessiveness, defense mechanisms and nervous tics.
TheraDate's creator, Frederick Levenson, is convinced such data, obtained from confidential questionnaires completed by a client's therapist, can be the building blocks for compatible long-term relationships. He also believes that people in therapy are attracted to others with similar experiences.
"The smartest people are the ones in therapy," he said. "They're wonderful people, very bright, very funny."
The service costs hundreds to thousands of dollars, of course. I've yet to determine who needs whose head examined the most here.
9:23 PM | link
Indian film director laments the popularity of his film with the wrong sort of people. Ah, get your hand off it. An audience is an audience, whether they're going to see a film for the right reason or not.
9:16 PM | link
Eric Olsen appraises The Doors in light of their recent so-called reunion. I don't know, sometimes a song about getting drunk and having a good time is precisely just that. Back in the day, to be sure, good old Jim succeeded in inspiring a fair bit of the sort of stuff Eric writes here, but, as interesting as Eric's piece is, I don't know if Morrison really warrants that sort of thing any more. Much as I loved the Doors back when I was 16 or 17, something about them looks terribly thin these days. The best parts have aged well, the lesser stuff has aged pretty badly.
9:08 PM | link
Tim Blair pounces on Norah Vincent. Norah's turned into a minor cause celebre in Blogland recently, and I don't propose to discuss her, just this bit of Tim's post:
And what does Vincent mean by this:
Web real estate is expensive! If you like the site, toss me some coin to help put a virtual roof over my head!
Her site is hosted by BlogSpot. It's free.
Tim's site is also on BlogSpot, consequently it is also free. That hasn't stopped him adding a Paypal donation button to the left column of his blog. Let he who is without sin, etc.
8:34 PM | link
Will you respect Taxiride in the morning? Or indeed ever?
"We don't make music to get respect," says Jason Singh, an unabashed music fan who describes the band as "like sponges: we want to just fill up with the juices of music".
Tim Wild, the principal songwriter and a more wary interviewee prone to comments such as "we're just trying to be the best band that we can be", helps out, saying: "Especially with the first album: you either loved it or hated it, there wasn't much in between. [But] no-one came up and slagged us, and you get that in Australia, so we didn't feel that much negative. We didn't get too blown up about it either."
I don't find Taxiride interesting enough to be bothered slagging them, which is why I haven't done it. They're not actually bad, but God they're ordinary. Life isn't long enough to waste time on them.
8:29 PM | link
US ambassador accuses us of being too complacent about terrorism. So far there have been no calls that I'm aware of for the guy to fuck off back to his own country and leave us alone, which seems to be the usual response from all quarters when people criticise Australia for anything. So I'll say it: FUCK OFF BACK TO YER OWN COUNTRY, YA PINKO CUNT! Or at least give us a bit of credit:
"And one of the things that I have been concerned about over the last year or so, and I don't want it to be scare mongering or whatever, but I see in Australia much of the same attitude toward terrorism that I saw in the US prior to September 11.
"And basically that was that it happens in the Middle East or in happens in Northern Ireland, but it doesn't happen here.
"Well, Americans realise that it does happen in America, and I'm not sure that Australians have fully come to grips with the fact that it could happen here."
Give your own folks some credit too, eh? People remembered the first WTC attack, plus Oklahoma City. Surely they already had some at least vague conception that the US could be a terrorist target. I think we do too, thank you very much. We've had some of the same shit happen to us as happens in the us, political assassination, mass shootings, bombings, nonsense like that. I think we're all aware, at least in the backs of our minds, that we're a potential target for Al Qaeda and their ilk. You'll just have to forgive us for not being as all-consumingly paranoid about it as you'd perhaps like us to be and getting on with day-to-day business...
8:23 PM | link
US threatens to go it alone in Iraq. Fine by me. Jason Soon's not convinced, though, and his point is well taken. Blair and Howard don't have enough spine to do anything but blindly follow. A shame, because quite frankly if the US reckons it can get by without its allies then it should be allowed to.
8:02 PM | link
Via Bruce Hill, here's a bunch of very brave or very stupid men. I'd like to see them try that in the US...
7:41 PM | link
George Pell's accuser takes part in that inquiry at last.
The man had been considering pulling out of the inquiry into the allegations after the Catholic Church refused to pay his legal costs.
But his lawyer Peter Ward said his firm, Galbally and O'Bryan, would represent the man pro bono and had secured the services of Michael Tovey, QC, and Howard Mason, who also would waive their fees.
"We regret that it has come to this but to enable a fair hearing for both parties, we had no alternative in our view," Mr Ward said.
I don't know that the Church should've paid for the guy, since it's their boy he's fighting. Anyway, at least it looks like something might come out of this thing now; I think if the bloke hadn't taken part it would've been a real whitewash. I suspect it may still be, but we can hope...
7:32 PM | link
Child shrinks warn Sept. 11 coverage could be horrific to kids.
Dr Newman said some of the coverage reliving the passenger planes hitting the World Trade Centre and the collapse of the twin towers had been "appalling".
"The world needs to remember so that we can learn from these events and hopefully resolve them," she said.
"We don't need to remember to revel in the horror of it all.
"It's sort of like watching a horror movie at the moment."
I can't imagine it being much fun for the adults watching either, though I see the point. The use of the word "revel" is particularly interesting. Someone at ThreeWay Action apparently used the phrase "tragedy porn" to describe the tone of the coverage of the event's anniversary, which strikes me as about right. People are going to be watching this to get some sort of thrill out of it. People will revel in the horror. That thought of the rubberneck factor's more distressing than the thought of the coverage itself, though I know it's going to happen. As for me, I intend to maybe watch the thing by those French filmmakers who were shooting inside the towers as the planes hit, and that'll be all for me thanks...
7:29 PM | link
Minor points of housekeeping: links are now bolded up, the colour of the text has been upgraded to actual black instead of the light grey it used to be (makes it a bit easier to read), and I've changed the subheading again. (For anyone who cares, it's a quote from Sammy Davis Jr., uttered at a Logie Awards presentation circa 1978, a clip from which appeared in that Bert Newton special on Ch. 9 on Wednesday night.) Also, I've removed Matthew Bates from the blogroll (he confirmed he has indeed whacked the blog), and added a few new local ones I've discovered of late.
8:56 PM | link
"Let me just tell you, this is not just a day of infamy; this is a tragedy," he said. "It’s a day of disgrace." Excoriating the intelligence community, he demanded to know, "Where’s the FBI? Where’s the CIA?" and asked how they would explain their "catastrophic incompetence."
"I’ve been begging people to do something about Afghanistan," he said. "And I said if we didn’t do anything about the Taliban, we would pay a dear price."
Except behind the scenes, Dana Rohrabacher has apparently actually been rather chummy with the Taliban. This article dredges up some other article from around 1996 where he apparently claimed the Taliban were what Afghanistan needed and that they did not harbour terrorists. For some reason, though, news agencies seem reluctant to pick the story up, jaw-dropping as it is even from this distance...
8:24 PM | link
One: A Space Odyssey. Fabulous Lego animation that retells 2001 in exactly one minute. Requires Quicktime, though at least you can download the thing without streaming.
8:07 PM | link
Improper reactions to Sept. 11.
What Murphy and many other authors miss is the fact that cooperation and empathy were not the only emotions of the day; they were simply the publicly expressed emotions of the day. Many of us didn't just feel sad or angry or proud in the face of the day's horrors -- or when President Bush and the media requested it. We also felt indifferent, confused, selfish, annoyed and, in some cases, even happy or excited. We had thoughts that we couldn't explain or control, thoughts we didn't express, except perhaps in whispered conversations. [...]
All these forbidden thoughts are sometimes painful or mortifying to hear. Many could be accurately described as disgraceful. But they emerged from our mental ether, and they deserve to be part of the record of that day and its aftermath. They are necessary evils to be countenanced in an honest analysis of the time. They keep us from creating a distorted, overly sentimental picture of our national reaction to disaster. And perhaps, as in therapy, these are the most useful thoughts to confront as we attempt to recover from the violence of the day.
My own favourites:
The best and worst voices in America. Fran Drescher came out as Most Annoying Female Voice, which is a judgement I don't intend to dissent from.
6:32 PM | link
Gothopoly. WARNING: massive amounts of graphics ahead. But funny.
6:15 PM | link
Via Dave Tepper: "Proof that racism truly knows no political bounds, and a reminder classifying someone solely because of their skin color, nationality, or religion is one of the most anti-freedom things one can do." That's a charming graphic on that page, it really is. If nothing else, it seems whoever runs the site has no idea of the contradictions involved in the phrase "Communist Nazi Jew"...
6:06 PM | link
Dog saved from death after biting Jehovah's Witness in the arse.
Ms. Mannetje told court that on June 15 she was going from door to door doing bible education work when she went into the back yard of the Skawinski home.
"I didn't see (the dog) coming," she testified. "I turned around and then he bit me. He knocked me down and bit me in the bum."
The dog's owner successfully argued that he had not one but two Beware Of The Dog signs up about the place and the stupid woman should've noticed them. I'd just like to know why the hell she went into the backyard.
5:57 PM | link
Cat attacked by coyote comes out on top.
"We were quite upset because there was a lot of blood all over Giz and we thought he was really hurt," says owner Colleen Pitt.
The cat was rushed to a local veterinary hospital for treatment. But when he was examined, it was discovered that all the blood on the housepet was from the coyote.
Gizmo's normally an indoors cat, too, so they're even more surprised. Though I'm not so surprised myself now that I've seen the photo of him which accompanies the report; looks like a mean little bastard...
5:53 PM | link
Floridian police cars to sport ads. What do they do, double as taxis when they're off duty?
5:50 PM | link
American ABC smuggles uranium into the US to prove a point.
ABC conducted its operation to test how authorities are guarding against the possibility of a nuclear "dirty bomb" attack. Correspondent Brian Ross' investigation will air as part of ABC's Sept. 11 anniversary coverage next week.
Federal authorities are angry that they've had to spend time on ABC's experiment.
"The U.S. Customs Service is engaged in a deadly serious business," said its spokesman, Dean Boyd. "The American public wants us to focus on real threats, not fake ones."
A fair point, and what ABC did was remarkably stupid, though arguably it did demonstrate Customs are perhaps not focusing hard enough on what they should be doing.
5:48 PM | link
The slide's manufacturers, Cutting Edge Creations, boasts that it `captures all the excitement of the famed ocean liner on its maiden voyage'.
It offers a bouncy iceberg as an optional extra.
Just wait until you see the picture of it. Jaw-dropping.
5:46 PM | link
Man ordered to stop having children until he pays a shitload of child support.
Talty's lawyer says he will appeal the ruling and his girlfriend is reportedly incensed.
She says the ruling is also a sentence on her, since it takes from her the option of having a child.
Damn, woman, the guy's already had seven kids off five previous women and won't pay for them. What makes you so certain you won't be number six? Have a child, but try having it with someone a bit more reliable perhaps...
5:28 PM | link
Via Tim Blair, another addition to OzBlogdom...
5:15 PM | link
Interview with Mike Rubbo, director of Much Ado About Something. I had the pleasure of seeing his film and interviewing him myself on Wednesday (at least I did until my illustrious co-host basically took over the interview from me; I was not exactly amused). Entirely recommended, should it ever come your way; I never used to think the Shakespeare-didn't-write-Shakespeare argument was that interesting or had legs, but now I reckon there may well be something to it.
5:06 PM | link
Gang rapist threatens to commit suicide.
In a voice perhaps deadened by the tranquillisers he admitted he was taking to cope with his confinement, X1 confirmed he had seriously considered suicide, to the extent that he decided his own family would be better off if he died. [...]
X1's interview on Thursday was the first time any of the convicted Lebanese gang rapists had spoken publicly. He spoke on the eve of what was due to be his sentencing day, but he was spared the humiliation of being identified by Judge Michael Finnane, because there was no time left to deal with his case.
Eh, go ahead, I say. Just think, some countries wouldn't give you the option of choosing life or death, so exercise it as much as you like cos I doubt there'll be that many people who'll miss you.
5:02 PM | link
Tex takes on Hugh Mackay again.
Oh, we try to minimise the sense of doom by our use of that cheeky diminutive, "9/11", but who are we trying to fool? Are we trying to convince ourselves that, hey, it's just another date, just another milestone, just another entry in history's bleak almanac?
Well no actually, you dummy. "9/11" is the american date-format shorthand for the whole horrid series of events. Mackay loves answering his own stupid rhetorical questions.
The inherent fragility of life is well known to us, but the news of any act of devastation - war, terrorist attack, plane crash, natural disaster - punctures our complacency and introduces a piquancy into the conduct of our daily affairs.
Hugh Mackay's mind wanders where few others dare: the long-forgotten bloody obvious.
There's more in this vein. Splendid.
4:43 PM | link
The return of the Doors... sort of.
The Doors come alive again Friday (September 6). Founding members Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger will be joined by Police drummer Stewart Copeland, Cult singer Ian Astbury, and Krieger's bassist, Angelo Barbera, for a performance at the California Motor Speedway in Fontana, California.[...]
Copeland has joined the Doors in place of John Densmore. The original drummer for the group, Densmore is battling the hearing disorder tinnitus, which makes him unable to play live on stage, but he reportedly has given his blessing for this lineup to continue without him.
Right. Nothing at all to do with him blasting Manzarek in The Nation a few months ago.
4:34 PM | link
Anti-Semitism on the rise in Germany...
...with more than a quarter of people surveyed saying they believe Jewish influence is too great, and 17 per cent saying they believe Hitler would be viewed as a great statesman if not for the Holocaust.
Yeah, that Holocaust was a major stumble, eh? Everything would've been all right had it not been for The Final Solution. Jesus.
4:04 PM | link
Calls to ban French TV porn take predictable "won't someone think of the children?" turn.
4:01 PM | link
More behind the scenes fun and games at the ABC. At first when I saw Kroger was quitting I thought hmm, he doesn't like the ABC not caving into the government.. then I discovered ABC boss Donald McDonald is actually a Howard appointee and friend. Closer inspection reveals Kroger is actually chummy with Peter Costello, so it looks like that Howard/Costello dichotomy thing at work...
3:59 PM | link
No posting yesterday cos I was out for dinner and then making arrhythmic gyratory motions on the dancefloor at Vortex.
Sunday's Search Specials, to frighten you all as much as they frighten me:
st trinians kylie minogue
umbro north america bankrupt
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James Mason and a paranoid wife
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Ephraem Chifley
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Thank god for the Blackshirts
delaware taking pictures of possible future criminals'
fred wedlock mp3s
Backstreet Boys slash
"kylie minogue" "school uniform"
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"obese 3 year old"
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"Andre Haermayer" australia german
pictures of Jelena Dokic nails
pictures of Palestinian schoolgirls in uniform
Dali exhibition
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"Daily News of New York" september 11
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italian vampire movie where a guy castrat
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Dali lama Asiana
defamatory restaurant reviews sydney morning herald
"we can still eat it"
"chef desmond morgan"
fred nile
single photographs of weary dunlop
"i spit on your grave" "nude pictures"
nude statues 800x600
cthulhu pentagon arlington
israeli safe room
ford bronco review
peter kurtz real estate
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"jim capozzola"
stream video old rape sample nazi
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Anchorage McDonalds Suicide
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nando's chicken scandal
the awful movie with deadly earnest
operation of eunuch in India video
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"Talkback Radio in Australia"
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is tony blair a christian fuckwit
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Atheist Boca Raton
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F-15 PILOT SHIT AUDIO FILES
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dvd review "snow white"
fecal porn sex death
non nude israeli photos
mp3s of vietnam's national anthem
lyrics to the songs in eight legged freaks
neo-nazi skin head vs k.k.k.
belgium woman vs woman fighting to the death
South African Rugby Player Killed in WTC
unfound victims of Sept. 11
"simon rattle" "against him"
disa bridge drugs
What food item is Tony Soprano paranoid about ?
weightlifting accident
AMENDMENT 3 NOVEMBER 5 GENERAL ELECTION ALABAMA 2002 GOAT
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newspapers in africa "britney spears" "lesbian porn"
specialised erotica women melbourne
As always, your guess is as good as mine.
3:35 PM | link
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I have various reasons for linking the sites below (a link rarely constitutes a 100% endorsement, of course). I'm usually happy to link to anyone who specifically asks, or anyone who links to me. I reserve the right to remove any link at any time for any reason.
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What the critics have said
"short tempered, rude, sarcastic and generally unable to cope with authority figures"
-Martin Forrester-Reid (former employer)
"formidable"
-Gareth Parker
"outstandingly quirky"
-Jason Soon
"prolific"
-Bernard Slattery
"pithy"
-Jim Henley
"excellent"
-Dave Trowbridge
"my Australian pal"
-Eric Olsen
"Who?"
-Glenn Reynolds
